


You dig the tunnel, I'll hide the soil

by Kolamity



Category: Alice (2009)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-20
Updated: 2012-12-25
Packaged: 2017-11-21 18:15:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/600702
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kolamity/pseuds/Kolamity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Taken to Wonderland as a child, Alice Hamilton grows into a very different Alice of Legend.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. You dig the tunnel, I’ll hide the soil

**Author's Note:**

  * For [clare_dragonfly](https://archiveofourown.org/users/clare_dragonfly/gifts).



Alice Hamilton had known today was going to try her patience. 

The morning broke hard and premature, the sounds of Charlie moving around camp before dawn rousing Alice from a well earned sleep. She needed no time piece to declare the hour early and a most unfair time for training, but Charlie made no move toward her side of camp, quietly leaving without setting the traps or giving her any sign of acknowledgement. 

Charlie mysteriously leaving camp before dawn was one thing— her mentor was madder than any hatter she’d ever met, after all— but Charlie never, _ever_ ,  forgot to reset the traps. 

Grumbling at the cool air, Alice had freed herself from her blanket cocoon, keeping a wary eye on the treeline least Charlie emerge for another of his sneak attacks as she readied the camp for what she had a nagging suspicion would prove to be another long day.  She donned her armor and stirred the fire to cook a breakfast for two, but ate Charlie’s share when he failed to arrive and her stomach couldn’t resist the last sausage. 

Near as she could figure, even with Wonderland’s wonky sense of time, Alice was 20, long past the ages of growing. But being a Knight, even one hiding in the woods, proved a hungry work, and she still held that nagging sensation the day would be long and difficult. Charlie wouldn’t miss what he didn’t know she’d made, after all. 

Her suspicions were confirmed when the familiar line of her long dead cat sprinted across the clearing, pausing only briefly to smile that inhumane grin. When that Cheshire specter appeared, trouble was not long to follow, and Alice was doubly glad for her armor. 

Alice blanketed the fire and mounted her steed, a big beast of a roan that Charlie had nicked a few years back when her legs had outgrown her pony. She gave the clearing one last look, gaze lingering on the hammock she should by rights still be sleeping within, before turning the charger towards the treeline where the had had disappeared. 

One thing Alice had learned growing up in Wonderland— when the Cheshire cat appeared, you had better follow. 

*        *       *

The sun was only just peeking at the slumbering world when the first trap sounded, cheap bells and whistles slicing through the chilly air. Beneath her the charger startled, prancing his hooves and balking at the reigns. 

“Be easy, David,” Alice stroked the roan’s hide, wishing for the placidity of her old pony. Few things startled that old beast. “I’m sure you’ll be twice the size of whatever intruder we’ve caught in that trap.”

The charger was still unsettled, but she knew he’d come through in a fight, just as the boy she’d met briefly in the Resistance nearly ten years ago had. One look at the steed’s warm brown eyes had reminded her at once of the boy she had known, who may have lost his life distracting the leaders so she could make her flight to the forest. David’s eyes may simmer with stark fear, but there lies a steadiness beneath, the kind that was essential in the heat of battle. 

It was a poor tribute to that boy, but two years on it still felt right. 

She patted David’s hide one last time before laying in her heels. “Come on boy, there’s adventure to be had. You wouldn’t want your mistress to charge off into the unknown alone now, would you?”

Nearly ten years in Wonderland and Alice was never quite certain if the oddness that permeated the place gave all the creatures an understanding of speech. But the charger seemed to listen, stilling his prancing and allowing himself to be lead towards the trap still sounding in the air. They made swift progress, and Alice dismounted before the clearing she knew the intruder to have stepped into, giving David enough lead to graze. 

Alice pressed on, quiet as she could, and found the intruder shrouded in the dimness cast by the edge of the trees.  They were scarcely a mile from the Queen’s land, but the figure seemed unsurprised to be captured by the snare Alice could see still wrapped around their ankle. The figure made no move to turn round, keeping their back to Alice’s approach. 

Either the intruder was deaf to the clatter a knight’s armor made, or they labored under the foolish delusion no harm should fall them in the forest. 

And though the Jabberwock might be slain, all should know the forest still held many dangers. The traps Alice and Charlie had scattered throughout the woods were not just for protection against the Queen and the Resistance against her.  Wonderland spawned a great many terrifying creatures, many more than Alice remembered reading as a child in her books. 

Alice slowly raised her heavy sword, careful to keep it level and angled just high to defend against any hidden weapons the intruder may carry, but not so high as wear her muscles by the lift itself. Cursing the heavy clatter her armor made with each step, Alice inched towards the dark figure, wary for any movement. 

“Who dares the broach the sanctuary of the White Knight?” Alice was careful to summon timber to her voice.  

The figure turned at that. “Hello Alice.” The woman smiled, removing her snare before stepping into the light slanting through the treeline, revealing her glittering form. It was the Duchess, the Queen of Heart’s favorite creature. “I was beginning to wonder if you had fallen asleep on watch— a year ago you’d have bounced in here minutes after I stepped into your trap.” 

Alice sheathed the sword. “I had a feeling it would be you. What brings you to the forest?”

The Duchess was entirely a creature of the Queen’s fabrication. And that was what makes her the perfect spy — after all, who would expect a plaything of their own devising to turn against them? 

It had been a great stroke of luck for the Duchess as a child to fall lost in the forest, and for Alice to find her. That had been the beginning of the plan, five years of careful planning that always seemed to find a new stumbling block to delay implementing, a new pawn to consider, a new play to factor in.

And always pushing back a date Alice could finally see her father once more. 

“You seem troubled, Alice.” The Duchess spoke, gently peeling back the veil to reveal her quiet beauty. Alice always preferred this Duchess, striped of the glittery excess of Heart Casino— standing in the forest she feels less like the Queen’s plaything, and more a measure of the woman Alice had grown to know the length of her time in Wonderland. 

“Why shouldn’t I be? How was I to know for sure it would be you in my trap. We need a better system to meet, Duchess, especially if our plan to steal the stone of Wonderland-” 

“There is no need to steal the stone.” The Duchess’s smile was tight, not quite reaching her eyes. “Someone has beaten us to it. The portal to your world is closed before we could be ready.” 

Alice cursed, uncaring of how the Duchess flinched at her coarse language. That stone was integral to their plan— without it, how could she barter for her father, for a way home? “No wonder the cat appeared. All our years of plotting, all of it ruined!  The Queen will turn Wonderland upside down to find it. All the plans we’ve made are ruined by the actions of-”

But the Duchess waved her hand, dismissing Alice’s concerns as petty as a court lady inquiring as to the thread count of the noose the Queen’s men twist round her neck. “Fret not Sir Alice. I know who has the stone.”

Alice could only stare at the golden woman in shock. “What?” 

“The stone is safe.”

Alice groaned. “Which means that _he_ has it. Duchess, he’s every bit a fabrication of the Queen as you are-”

“Do you not trust me?” Duchess demanded. “For I trust him with my life, every bit as I trust you. The Queen cares too much for her precious son to meddle with his mind, to strip him of the emotions she’s cast out of our hearts only to spoon feed us the echoes of your oyster feelings. Of Wonderland, I would argue he alone is free of the Queen’s influence.”

“Save for the fact he’s the Queen’s son. As evil as the Queen of Hearts is, I don’t think I could trust a man who could stab his own mother in the back to take power for himself. You can’t ask a man to turn against his own mother.”  

Duchess smiled. “He has done so himself, by stealing the stone.” But a shadow crosses her face, then. “And by seeking the woman of legend who will do what he cannot, release Wonderland from the Queen’s evil grasp.” 

Alice considered that. “You could end the Queen’s rule, Duchess. You may be a creation of the Queen, but I know you have the heart of a true leader. Marry the Prince, save Wonderland yourselves. I only wished to rescue my father.”

“I cannot defy the Queen to such lengths, unless I augment myself with the most powerful of Oyster teas.”  Duchess splayed her hands, her body frozen with regret. “And I fear even then I would fail when the time came.  My fear for the Queen is great. That is the core of how she holds power over us all.”

But Alice was not convinced. “Your love for the Prince is greater.”

“That is why I came to you. I worry for him— he has hidden himself with the Underground, but they would make him the figurehead they made you those years ago rather than join forces with him to end the Queen’s rule.” 

“You want me to find him, save him, and kill his mother for him.”

And the golden Duchess smiled. “Yes."


	2. When She Was Small

Little had changed in the once great city since Alice had last stepped among its ruins. Then she had just been a small plaything to the Resistance, a pawn in their battle against the Queen. The Resistance saw her as little better than a figurehead, a child of legend to raise as their banner and draft new members to risk their lives in a fight few actually understood.

When she had wandered through the looking glass, following the man who stole her father, wearing the suit bearing the white rabbit straight out of her childhood books, Alice had the great misfortune to stumble across the leader of the Resistance. It had been Caterpillar who found her, fostered her upon the strange folk in the sub-terrain library who resented her place among them. Who was this small oyster child they must share their meager rations with? So what if she may be a new Alice of legend— the last Alice had left their world ripe for the Queen to take.

Six months Alice had lived among the Resistance, quietly helping as best she could. Wonderland was so strange to her then, like stepping into a daydream that refused to surrender her to the real world. Alice was unsure of what rules to follow, and had thought that if she was a good girl, the Resistance would make good on their promises to save her father.

But for all their loud protests, Alice found them little better than the Queen of Hearts herself.

The Queen, after all, just wanted her dead. The Resistance wanted her skin with nothing of her still attached. Both seemed to use fear to oil the machines that ran their empires-- the Queen's was just a slicker production. 

Alice took one long look behind her, at the peaceful edge of woods she had left her charger in. There was no going back, now— the Queen had spies everywhere in the city, and whatever the Queen missed, the Resistance was quick to take for their own.

Which was precisely what Alice was counting on.

The city was quiet as Alice walked deeper inside, the skin on the back of her neck itching. She wore no helm, baring her face to Wonderland for the first time since bolting into the forest when she was small. She had thought to make it to the library on her own, but it was clear the entrance had shifted, or her memory of the place proven faulty.

And with the Wonderland stone in play, Alice knew there was little time for guile. It was Charlie who favored tricks and the occult to mask his play— but Alice preferred a direct approach. Brazenly walking down the city pathways with a sword in hand and her red and blue armor gleaming as if new, Alice stood out like the sorest of thumbs.

Footsteps behind her— careful, measured, and soft enough a city dweller might have missed them. But Alice had trained in the quiet woods these nine years. She was unprepared, however, for how quickly the man moved, his mouth hot against her ear. “I thought the Knights were extinct.”

“We like Wonderland to think us myths,” Alice twisted, raising the sword between her and the stranger. She was taken aback by how young the man was— he hardly looked older than herself, a surprising envoy from either Queen or Resistance. Perhaps an agent of his own devices? She wondered, taking in his colorful garb that seemed to straddle court chic and the impoverished duds of the freedom fighters. “It makes for more interesting arrivals when Wonderland needs us.”

The man’s lips quirked, drawing into a half smile that struck Alice as oddly familiar, though she couldn’t place where she had seen the like. “Flashy, I’ll give you that.” He brushed his hand against her polished chest plate, apparently unafraid of the bare sword that lay between them.

Alice stepped back, dragging her boots in the soft soil. They were standing outside a particularly dilapidated building, the dirty windows advertising the latest in the Queen’s teas. Once upon another Wonderland, perhaps this had been a lawn, but it had long gone to sod. “It serves its purpose. And what purpose do you serve?”

The smile sharpened, charm rising in his warm eyes. “A great many things, depending on need and monetary reward.” He doffed his hat, twisting it to his hands in an overly complicated manner that irritated Alice on principle alone— even though it betrayed a great deal of control and coordination. This man might dress the fool, but he might prove handy in a fight. “Hatter, at your service, sir-?”

“Alice.” She watched as his face fell slack, all hint of charm evaporating in an instant.

 

* * *

 

It seemed this Hatter was currently working for the Resistance, and he seemed overly eager to take her down to the Library. He seemed to know nothing of a connection between the Resistance and the Prince, and grew sullen the more she tried to question him. The long ride down to the ruins became chilled and quiet, and Alice found herself wishing for a measure of the charm Hatter had oozed upon their first meeting. He seemed to have no words for a creature of legend, but she pretended not to notice him chancing looks upon her.

_So he was curious. Perhaps he wonders what price my head will fetch if he drags me to the Queen?_

He did not take her to the Dodo's office through the usual route-- but the impact of the tent camp spread amongst the towers of ancient texts would be lost on a woman who had lived among them years before. Perhaps he was unwilling to show that weakness to one who had fleed. She wondered at how many sought santuary now-- they would be better off on their own, away from the oppresion of the Resistance leaders. Fear was a great motivator, keeping the ranks of the Resistance quiet and satisfied with the meager rations the leaders dolled out.

The route the Hatter led them down seemed to be a dingy hallway that Alice held no memory of. Though it twisted seemingly at random angles, there seemed to be no doors or other hallways branching off.  Just one endless hallway that smelled strongly of moldy parchment.

But most of the Resistance headquarters smelled that way-- one of the problems of living in the ruins of a Library. 

"Trying to keep me hidden?" Alice finally asked as they turned into yet another corner that revealed more of the same. "I really am on a schedule here-"

"You'll be thanking me if we avoid Owl," Hatter's voice was soft, almost subdued. "She's overly fond of jabbing that shotgun of hers where you least want it." 

"Not many weak spots in this armor." Alice pointed out.

"No sense risking your pretty little head." Hatter slowed their march, tilting his head back towards her. He drew in one long, deep breath, his shoulders tensing.  “The Resistance has changed since you were here last.” He offered in a lighter tone, though the tension remained in his shoulders.

“Few things remain the same after nine, nearly ten years.” Alice smiled, coldly. “I doubt they’ll find me the same girl they knew.”

Hatter offered no comment, busying himself with fixing the tilt of his hat. Standing there with nothing to consider but the strange man, Alice couldn’t help but think there was something about him that nagged her. Some trace mannerism, a resemblance in the quirk of his lips, perhaps the jaunty tilt of his ridiculous hat— or some measure of all three, Alice couldn’t put her finger to. Perhaps he had been here in the ruins when she was small, though the Resistance had offered sanctuary to only a few children then.

Dodo had little use for children, lest they offer some value to his precious Resistance. 

"We're almost there," Hatter offered, placing his hand upon the dingy wall. Alice opened her mouth to protest they were hardly anywhere, when Hatter moved through the wall itself.  

"Clever trick, I'll give him that." Alice followed him through the wall, only to find herself facing the barrels of Owl's shotgun. 

Well, so much for that. 

Alice allowed herself to be bound, offering no comment even as the small woman tied the binds with more force than was needed, shoving her into the Dodo's office. 

It might have been over nine years since Alice had last past the threshold, but she found little had changed. Still as gloomy and cluttered as ever, the stench of moldy rations and musty parchment as overpowering as it had been even then. Only one candle was lit, casting the office in a darkness she knew the Dodo used to keep his interviewees off balance.

She had fallen for that trick too many times as a child, giving power to the darkness it hadn't earned. 

Alice searched the shadows, but could find little sign of the man she feared almost as much as the Caterpillar. He was hiding, then, thinking her still the terrified ten year old she was the last time she had been here.

“I have a present for you, Dodo.” Hatter leaned against the long desk, a phantom of his earlier charm rising around the edges. But here in the office that had haunted Alice, it seemed the same defense mechanism of a porcupine, raising its quills against a potential enemy. “Ran away from you lot nine years back?”

 Alice remained unmoving. She had counted on this happening, but hearing Hatter's words unnerved her somehow, making her heart beat almost painfully fast. It wasn't a betrayal if she'd expected this... counted on this.

It appeared to have been long enough for Dodo to hide in the shadows, for the large man leaned far enough across the desk to reveal his face. Alice was surprised with how small he seemed, now that she had grown so tall herself. She considered his face, marveling at how she had been afraid of so weak a man. Her terror as a child seemed foolish— this man wore his outrage stark against his ruddy face, seeming more the cartoon villain of her youth than a proper threat.

 “Alice?” He sputtered, rising to his feet. Alice noted at once he had only a few inches on her, and had grown considerably around the middle in the intervening years. Still taking the rations of those he thought too weak to earn them. “This is the Alice creature Caterpillar foisted upon us?” 

 “I heard her disappearance made all sorts of mess for you and Owl to clean up.” Hatter smirked, clearly enjoying himself. “Am I right in thinking she’ll fetch a pretty penny?”

 “Yes, yes.” The Dodo waved his hand distractedly, sizing up Alice. “Why is she in armor?”

 The Owl spoke up at Alice’s elbow. “She claims herself a Knight.” She scoffed. “Probably stole some corpse’s armor and painted it up all pretty. No Knight would allow themselves captured without a fight.” 

 “Unless this was precisely where they wanted to be.” Alice said with a tight smile. “You’ll have to forgive me, but I have an appointment to keep.”

 “Dearie, you aren’t going anywhere. The stone of Wonderland is missing-“

 Alice let the smile fall. “Actually, it isn’t.”

The tension in the room immediately shifted. “Search her immediately!” Dodo called out, shaking a finger at Alice. “If that fool brought the stone here-“

 But as Owl moved to search Alice, she twisted the shotgun from the woman’s slack hand, knocking the butt end against her temple. As the woman crumpled, Alice swung the weapon across the desk, hearing it strike the Dodo’s chest with a satisfying thud. 

 She stepped around the wide mouthed Hatter and approached the man still gasping for air. “You’ll never have your hands on it, Dodo.” Alice wound the bounds she had unraveled from her own hands about Dodo’s, knotting the bindings especially tight.  

 “But you were the little girl lost!” The Dodo sputtered, astonished at how quickly Alice had disarmed them all. “You were but a slip of nothing, a banner we raised for our cause. How did this happen?”

 Alice reclaimed her sword, raising it unflinchingly at his heart. “I have never been lost. That was the lie the Underground spun to keep a child the pliant figurehead for their rebellion. They use fear and lies, tools that make the Underground no better than the Queen. At least she wears her villainy openly, not hiding behind terrified ten year olds.”

 “But you fell into the forest! You were lost so many years-“

 “I knew precisely where I was, Mr Dodo, and I stayed there as it suited me. That doesn’t strike me as a being lost.”

 “We thought for sure the Queen had taken you,” The Hatter spoke then, his eyes wide. “She holds so many hearts, I was sure one of them was yours.”   

 And in that moment, staring at those too familiar eyes, Alice realized that this Hatter could only be the young boy who helped her those many years before. “David?” 

 She was greeted by a flash of his charm, still squirrelly around the edges, bordered with relief. “So there is a memory of me locked in that pretty head of yours.”

 “Are you with me?”

 His eyes close, that private war waging. “For now. But that forest has made a Knight of you, and I know little of that kind."

"You'll have to trust that I'm enough of the same person I was before then."


	3. One to come, one to go

After securing Dodo and Owl in the office, Alice and Hatter returned to the private hallway. 

“You wouldn’t return without some sort of plan,” David spoke, his voice low and urgent as they made their way towards the lifts.

But Alice found calling the man by the name he had claimed as a child oddly wrong— David had grown into a man who wore as many hats as he could to survive. She would call him by the name he had given her outside the tea shop then— Hatter. It seemed to suit the man far better than David did. 

“What help do you need? I have some connections with the Queen— I’m afraid we’ve burned the bridge here.”

Alice shook her head. “Thanks for offering, but I just need to keep that appointment. My contact is hiding in the ruins of the old White Rabbit Head Quarters, the ones the Resistance torched not long after I arrived. He'll get me in contact with the Prince.”

Hatter nodded. “I know the ones. There’s a lift not far from there-”

But on the other side of the wall, a commotion was rising. “They must have discovered the Dodo already. Can we reach the lift quickly?”

Hatter shook his head. “Not with you clattering in that armor of yours.”

As shedding the armor was out of the question, Alice pressed on. “Can we still risk the lifts?”

“They won’t cut off the power with us on board. The whole system is tied together. We can reach one close to my tea shop.”

“That was your shop?” Alice tried to keep the disgust from her voice, but from the flinch in Hatter’s shoulders, she knew she had failed. Even in the forest Alice had heard what the Queen was manufacturing in those teas, where she stole the raw ingredients from. Duchess had even stolen a vial of tea once, but Alice had shattered the glass, watching with grim satisfaction as the emotions leeched into the forest's soil. 

“A man has to earn a living, however unsavory he may find the work. Wonderland isn’t the fairytales you oysters tell your children to lull them into sleep.”

“I know,” Alice said softly. “I may have been born in another world, Hatter, but I’ve lived in this one for nearly ten years now.”

Some of the tension left Hatter’s shoulders. “Good. Now, quiet that mouth of yours, I’m going to see if anyone’s by the lift.” And with that, her newly reclaimed friend disappeared through the wall once more.

“He’ll have to teach me that trick sometime.” Alice muttered, shifting her feet as she waited and winching at how loud the armor clanged.

Hatter’s head popped back into the corridor. “Thankfully for you, there’s no one out here to hear you utterly fail at being quiet.”

Alice followed him through the wall, trying to ignore the feeling she was tumbling through another portal into a land she was quite unprepared to go. 

 

* * *

They separated at the surface— Hatter was convinced he could lead the Resistance to his shop, bide her some time. “They’ll think I took you there to turn you over to the Queen,” he admitted. “I might have done it if I didn’t believe you had a plan to fix this.”

“There’s a plan, but I can’t promise it to be a good one.” Alice admitted. “But it is the only one we have.”

"Is there anything else you need?"

"Do you have a way to send out a message?" Alice asked, continuing at his nod. "There's a man named Charlie-- he's probably out at the tavern on the edge of the City still, nosing it up with the other men beneath the notice of Queen or Resistance. Can you give him a message, tomorrow at dawn?"

"That soon, huh?" Hatter seemed taken aback, but nodded. "He know the place?"

"He's the one who picked it." Alice opened her mouth to continue, but the words failed to fall out. The last time they had said goodbye, Alice had dashed into the woods, hoping to find her freedom but leaving him to face the brunt of the Resistance's ire. She wondered at how he had been these long years-- there was a roughness to Hatter that the boy she had so briefly known had lacked, and Alice couldn't help but feel guilt that some of it had come from her flight. "I guess this is it?" She offered, wincing at how trite it seemed. 

Hatter stared at her for a long moment, but a smile tugged at the edges of his lips. “Be safe, Alice.”

"You too," she offered softly, brushing her fingers against his before dashing off towards the burned out White Rabbit Headquarters, keenly aware of the clang her heart and armor made with each step she took away. 

* * *

Alice knew the day would be a long one, but it seemed difficult to comprehend only a dozen hours have passed since she was safe inside the forest. Here, there were eyes everywhere, and the armor that she had needed to catch the attention of the Resistance had become a liability.

Alice bartered away a small trinket for a Ratcatcher’s cloak, and though it reeked, she carefully shifted it around her armor. She doubted it will be enough to keep the eyes off her for long, but perhaps it would be just long enough to meet with the Duchess’ contact who would lead her to the Prince's location. 

Again, she found herself alone, walking down the seemingly abandoned walkways, making her way quickly towards the building she had stumbled from all those years ago, chasing after the man who had taken her father. 

A flash of shadow broke across the walkway before her. She squinted up at the distant gray sky, fearing it to be one of the Queen's airborne spies. But it was simply a low flying cloud, not the terrifying Scarab the Dodo had threatened to give her to if she failed to help the Resistance. 

She eased the breath out she hadn't realized she'd been holding and forced her shaking legs to move forward. There wasn't much time left-- if the Duchess' man wasn't there, Alice wasn't sure how she'd meet up with the Prince. And he was a vital pawn in their plan...

Alice pulled up short, surprised to see the husk of the old building lurching before her. The stone steps still lead to the building, but the door that had once boasted a painted white rabbit decoration was long gone. She could still see where wood had barred the entrance, but someone had broken through. How long it had been, Alice had no way of knowing. She cast off the smelly Ratcatcher's cloak-- little need of it now-- let out another breath, and launched herself into the unknown. 

It was the only way she'd get her father back, after all. And help the Duchess...

The top floors of the White Rabbit headquarters had long since fallen in, but the once grand entryway remained, the ceiling held in place by blackened marble pillars. It was dim inside-- not the oppressive shadows of Dodo's office, but the ashen glow of ill lit marble casting wavy shadows. Here and there the pillars had failed, and Alice quickly realized the only exit was the one at her back.

This place had too many places to hide and only one place to go. 

“Is anyone in here?” She demanded of the shadows, uncarying that her voice wavered. “The Duchess said someone would be here-”

“So the Duchess can be counted on after all,” A warm voice filled the air, and a fair haired man stepped close enough to Alice that she fought against the urge to raise the sword in protection. “Welcome to the future of Wonderland, Alice of Legend.”

Alice realized two things on top of one another: The Duchess’ contact is none only than Jack Heart himself, and he’s armed only with a ring.

“I have little use for your glittering jewelry.” Alice pulled sharply back away from the offered ring, shrinking back as if the stone jutting from the metal were poison.

The Prince continued to hold the ring out towards her, his grace unwavering. “This is the jewel that controls the mirror to your land. It may shine bright, but this ring holds the key to freeing Wonderland from my mother’s tyranny. And I want you to have it.”

Alice had found that in Wonderland, few things came without strings attached. “And if I take that ring, what do I lose?”

He smiled, all charm. “I’d rather think it what you’d gain, my dear.”

Dread befell her. “Do you offer a throne you don’t possess?”

“A throne that is mine by right, and ours by the will of Wonderland. Alice, don’t you see? With this ring, we can control the mirror. My mother has done despicable things, the least of which was bring your father here against your will. And what she has done to him-”

"No.” Alice's head tilted down, that sadness a stain on her chilled porcelain skin. In that moment she seemed lost in her secondhand armor, the phantom of the little girl lost those ten years before. She had dreaded what the Queen could have done to her father, wondering if she had any right to the man after all this time, dragging her feet in saving him. But the Duchess was firm, they could only move forward with their plan when they had enough pawns to stand against the Queen...

Jack stepped forward, his voice edged with a triumph that clashed with the ashen circumstances. "Alice-"

"Stop, just stop." Alice raised a trembling hand, moving as if to lay it across his chest, but stopping just a hair short of contact. "I'm not Wonderland bred, it is true, but this place has seen fit to make a Knight of me, not an oyster princess to use for your endgames."

Alice tipped her chin, bringing the full glare of her steel gray eyes to bear upon the Prince of Hearts. "And I am far more useful to your revolution as I am."

“The Duchess warned me you would be stubborn.” Jack said easily. “You’ll see in time that an alliance with me is beneficial to both our causes.”

Alice shook her head. “My only cause is saving my father.”

“And what of Wonderland?” Jack challenged. “This has been your home for nearly ten years Alice. Surely you have some measure of feeling for the good of the land.”

“That is why I cannot join you, Jack,” Alice shook her head. “You’d have me the same figurehead as the Resistance. I cannot rule over Wonderland-- I'm not one of you. You have the stone, you have the power to barter with your mother."

"You would have me face my mother, alone?"

"I would stand by your side," Alice allowed. "Not as a Queen, but as a counsel for the will of the people I have known. Wonderland does not need fear, but empathy. An ear to listen to what the land wants, what it needs. That's why slaying the Queen... or the Resistance... would never fix what ails the land. Wonderland needs hope, Jack. And I can't give it. But you can.”

Jack considered her for a long moment. "Am I correct in assuming you have a plan? Because facing my mother is tantamount to suicide with just the two of us."

"Naturally. We'll need to send word that you seek an audience with the Queen outside the casino tomorrow at dawn."

For a long moment, Alice wondered if Jack had the strength to stand against his mother. He had no idea of the plan the Duchess and Alice had labored on these many years-- he only had the confidence in both women, and in himself. But a resolve settled about the Prince, and his smile seemed the light up the ashen room. "Tomorrow it is. I had an inkling we'd move against my mother soon and stashed two flamingo flying machines on the roof."

He paused, taking a long, leisurely look at her brightly colored armor. "I think your armor would make escaping the city on a single flamingo rather slow and uncomfortable. Especially, and forgive me, for that smell."

Alice shrugged. "You'll be getting up close and personal with your subjects soon. Consider this a secondhand meeting with an enthusiastic Ratcatcher."

The Prince winced, but nobly held out his hand. "Shall we be off?"

"Yes," Alice ignored the hand, leading instead out of the building's ruin. "But there’s someone we need to pick up first.”


	4. Heads will roll

In all the years Alice had spent in Wonderland, she had never before seen the dreaded Queen. 

 The resistance hadn’t trusted her out of their sight, keeping her hidden in the Library and dragging her only to events away from the Queen’s notice. The Queen of Hearts was a childhood figure of terror, less real than the imposing figures she eventually escaped from, perhaps. The Queen was the boogeyman the children at the Library whispered stole your feelings and replaced them with weak and bitter teas, lurking in the shadows to rob you of your very heart if you weren’t careful. 

 And Charlie, bless his poor paranoid heart, hadn’t been much better, telling a child rich, bloody tales of beheadings before bed each night. 

 So the woman striding forward on the hilltop outside the Heart Casino surprised Alice, for she was hardly the figure of terror the Resistance and Charlie had made her out to be. While there was more than a touch of madness to her, but few things lived in Wonderland without that sheen, and it hardly dampened the raw power that the woman exuded. 

And the full brunt of that power was focused on Alice. “This is the creature that dares to defy me? This is nothing but a girl in borrowed armor. Another limp banner the Resistance against me waves meekly about.”

Hatter stepped forward. “This is _Alice_.” He called out, and Alice held a hand against his chest, half afraid him mad enough to launch himself at the Queen, surrounded by a full legion of guards. 

“So she carries a name of legend,” The Queen scoffed. “And I see you’ve tipped your hat for the final time, young Hatter. Or have you forgotten what happened to your predecessor?”  

Hatter swallowed, but remained at Alice’s side. 

The Queen turned her attention to her son, clearly dismissing the other two. “You have far shinier playthings at the Casino, Jack. Whatever lies this creature has told you-”

A clamor rose up on the hillside as a small group of poorly dressed but well armed city dwellers made their way towards the gathering. Caterpillar was not among their ranks, and it seemed Dodo and his shotgun were leading the ranks. Owl’s face was still bruised from Alice’s strike the day before, her small eyes fixed with a particular hate at Alice and not on the Queen. 

The Queen began sputtering, obviously livid at the sight of the leaders of the Resistance daring to show their faces before her. “Don’t just stand there, men— off with their heads!”

The guards moved towards the Resistance, but before they could take more than a few steps forward, Dodo and Owl raised their shotguns, leveling them steadily upon the Queen herself. The Queen’s loyal men in feel in rank around their monarch, aiming their own weapons at the Resistance. 

It seemed all hell was to break loose on the field, and there was little anyone could do to stop it. A bloodbath worthy of one of Charlie's nighttime stories, only this time good seemed unlikely to prevail against two forces so determined to kill each other off.

But at precisely ten minutes past the dawn, Alice could make out a familiar glittering figure, making her way down from the casino. And at her side, Alice could just make out a portly yet equally familiar figure. 

Alice smiled. The Duchess had come through after all, just as they had planned. Now, it was time for phase two.

“Is that who I think it is?” Hatter whispered into her ear. “How did you manage that?”

“Sometimes it takes knowing the right people.” Alice supplied with a grin. “Keep an eye on him, please?” 

Hatter nodded. “Although if he’s anything like his daughter, I’m sure he can take care of himself.”

“Thank you,” Alice closed her eyes, then raised her sword as high into the air as she could. 

“TO THE PRINCE!” She shouted, waving the sword in a slow circle. Her voice boomed out across the field, the acoustics adding enough power to rise above the shouting of royals and resistance.  

And as if sprouting from the hills themselves, an army rose, casting off their robes of grass and bush, quickly folding in around the two opposing forces. 

They were armed with simple tools of their trade, these men and women from the edges of the Wonderland tales, but it was the lack of fear in their hearts that proved the strongest weapon. At their heart was a white crowned man who himself came from the edge of the tales, a former lowly squire who found himself the last to carry on the legacy of the Knights of Wonderland. 

You could always count on Charlie. She had asked him to rouse a small army, but it seemed the man had outdone himself. 

The Queen pushed her way through her guards, her eyes boring hard on Alice. “I see what this is. You seek to topple me from my throne? Take it for yourself?” Her face was every bit the nightmare snarl the children of the Library had described. 

But it was not Alice who spoke next, but the arriving Duchess. “The people of Wonderland have spoken. The time for fear has past, and we will find a new legacy with the hope of Wonderland on the throne.”

“What?” The Queen was clearly shocked her own creature could rise against her. “You could not possibly stand against me! You haven't got it in you!” 

“You made one mistake, my Queen," The Duchess continued her slow procession to stand beside Jack. "You may have stripped most of my emotions when you molded me into your Duchess, and while you were careful to keep the same fear you fostered in the hearts of all your pawns, you forgot to rid me of that inconvenient emotion of love.” 

The Queen’s face hardened. “I made no mistake. I allowed you to keep that silly emotion for my son.” 

The Duchess smiled. “And your son loves Wonderland. ” 

The members of the Resistance began muttering to themselves. Alice stepped forward, watching as the group fell into a fearful silence at her approach. Once, she might have relished that hold over those who had held her captive... but now she felt only sadness that they were incapable of seeing that Wonderland was changing before them.

“And without the Queen on the throne, the members of the Resistance will find yourselves quite out of a job.” 

“You can’t do this!” Dodo cried out, raising his shotgun towards Alice. “You were suppose to be on our side!”

“No,” Alice smiled as Charlie's clean shot knocked the shotgun from Dodo's hands. “I was only suppose to be on Wonderland’s.” 

*     *     *

A week had past since Alice had last seen Hatter— between the celebration that had followed the crowning of Jack, the establishment of a new council to advise the young king on the concerns of the public, and her reunion with her often bewildered father still shrugging off the Queen’s meddling with his mind, Alice had lost track of him. 

Wonderland was waking to a new age, and as the only Knight of the realm outside of Charlie, that left Alice tending to every crisis that seemed to develop. 

It had taken a week for her to backtrack to his shop, but he hadn’t been within that dilapidated building.  At loss as to where he had gone, Alice retraced her steps towards the edge of the treeline where she had first entered the forest all those years ago. 

She wasn’t surprised to feel his breath against her ear not long after she arrived. “Now that the stone has returned to the looking glass, you can return home with your father.” 

That’s true,” Alice didn’t turn to face him, keeping her eyes on those distant trees. “My father is eager to return.”

“And what about you?” 

She turned at that, smiling at the conflicting emotions on his face. “Wonderland has been my home. I’m a Knight here… but I’ve no education or skills needed to survive in that world.”

Alice could see Hatter hold his breath-- they were standing close enough she could feel practically the absence of it, her neck tingling.

"But your family will be there.” He finally let it out, confusion dominating his eyes. 

“Not all of them.” Alice admitted, smiling as realization dawned on his face. Good, it had taken him long enough to see what should have been obvious. “But my parents can always come visit. I want my father to come back and see all the good we’ve built here.”

Hatter lazily wrapped an arm around her shoulder, and Alice allowed her body to lean fully against his side. They fit comfortably against one another. “So you are finally admitting that Wonderland is home now, huh?”

Alice looked out on the trees that had saved her those many years ago and somehow had become more a home for her than she had ever realized. “I guess it always was.”

**Author's Note:**

> First of all, thanks so much for your wonderful prompts! I couldn't decide what to write, but eventually I zeroed in on your suggestion for an AU where Alice & Hatter met differently and somehow this came about XD. I had a lot of fun working in details of the miniseries with a different timeline and playing with an Alice who was more familiar with Wonderland. I'm not normally a long or plot driven sort of writer, so hopefully this satisfies your narrative kink for that type of story!
> 
> Thanks again for the wonderful prompts, and happy yuletide!


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